


Mirror Image

by muffin_song



Category: Final Fantasy IV
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-15 23:19:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13041612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muffin_song/pseuds/muffin_song





	Mirror Image

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lassarina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lassarina/gifts).



It’s a clear night on Mt. Ordeals.  The starlight gives the sacred place an extra sheen of magic.  The air is weighted with the crisp coolness of autumn.  

The revenant doesn’t notice.

The shambling creature was a man once, perhaps.  If it was, that’s been long forgotten, wiped out by sickening power forcing life back into a shell that had long abandoned the living world.  All the revenant knows is _hunger_.

The revenant doesn’t notice the hastily abandoned campsite.  It’s only dimly aware of its fellow undead shambling their way towards the same target - the two figures brimming with life, even moreso as they flee for their lives.

“Come on!” shouts the green haired girl at her companion as she takes a step backwards onto the bridge.  The taller figure - the one in the mask - is still trying to fight back the revenant’s kin.  The man’s skill with a spear doesn’t matter - there are so many of them.  The two living beings are strong, but the revenant and its brethren are many.  And they are so, so hungry.

“If you haven’t noticed, there’s nowhere to go,” grunts the man even as he pierces another undead with his spear.

“Idiot,” the girl mumbles under her breath.  “Up ahead!”

The man with the spear stops just long enough to see where the green-haired girl is pointing.  “That door doesn’t open.”  His instant’s hesitation almost costs him his life.  But the man is surprisingly nimble on his feel, and leaps out of the way before an undead’s claw makes contact with his shoulder.  

The revenant does not remember what it was to be a man, to eat food meant for a mortal.  It only knows the hunger for flesh.  

There’s a structure just up ahead, but the revenant knows its prey will find no quarter here for there is no entrance.  

“That’s impossible,” the man says stupefied as his eyes fix on a point on the tomb.  The girl isn’t listening.  “I’ve been here for years, it’s never-”

The revenant is so _close_ .  So _hungry_.  

A door leading inside the tomb opens for the briefest of moments.  The two figures fall inside, and vanish.

The revenant howls.

 

 

* * *

 

Rydia breathes in long, desperate gulps of air as she collapses against a mirrored wall.  King Leviathan always told her that any day you ended with breath in your body was a good one.  Rydia’s knees are badly bruised from stumbling in her haste, but there’s always wisdom in Leviathan’s words.  Rydia will take what she can get.

The world stops spinning long enough for Rydia to take in her surroundings.  So this is where Cecil faced the trial that transformed him.  Rydia can no longer reach her white magic, but even she knows there is something holy here.  Perhaps this is what Leviathan and Asura spoke of when they sent her to find answers in this place.

Wherever...this place is.  When Cecil told her the story of his transformation in a mystical tomb, Rydia expected something dark.  The mirrors surrounding the chamber are blinding after hours in the darkness outside. Rydia can’t discern where the light comes from.

“What in the name of the Crystals are those things?” Rydia pants.  The dizziness has subsided, but her breathing is still heavy and labored from exertion.

Her companion gives a noncommittal shrug.  Kain Highwind has always exhibited a preternatural calm.  “Zombies.  Revenants.  I see them on the mountain from time to time, but never this strong, and never anywhere close to this many at once.  I was finishing my meditations when I heard the sounds of someone fighting.  “Can’t say you were who I was expecting to see, Rydia of Mist,” He fixes her with a stare.  “Why are you here?”  Kain keeps his tone carefully neutral.

It’s strange to see Kain without his usual Dragoon’s mask.  She’s known from enough nights of camping with her comrades that the man does take it off before sleeping.  But even then, she only ever got a glimpse.  There was something comforting about the shape of it, for someone like her who was as much monster as girl.  Human faces are still jarring these days.  (Maybe that’s why Edge is intriguing even as he’s infuriating - something about how he always keeps  half of his face covered with that silly cloth.)

Since Rydia began her most recent trip to the surface, nothing has been what she has expected.  The truth is every time she comes here, she’s reminded again of how much the Eidelons have changed her.  Maybe not physically, but it’s been a long time since she’s felt more girl than monster.  Rydia thinks she knows how to pass as human until she says the wrong thing to a villager, or she forgets that a human woman would not be caught dead bathing naked outside, no matter how far removed from villages.  Even in Mist, she doesn't quite belong.

Rydia shrugs.  She and Kain have never had the warm camaraderie she shares with Rosa and Cecil, nor...whatever it is she has with Edge.  (There is nothing with Edge, because there is no future for a King and a girl who lives with monsters).  Regardless, at the end of the day she and Kain stood together against the four Fiends and even Zeromus himself.  He’s nothing is not an ally.  The choice not to trust him passed long ago.  “My King and Queen sensed strange energy on the surface - they sent me to investigate.  It led me here.”  She smirks.  “So this is where you’ve been hiding out.”

Kain gives a bitter laugh.  “It’s not exactly a secret - the King and Queen know of my whereabouts.”  The titles are the same, but Kain isn’t referring to King Leviathan and Queen Asura.  But Rydia knows that Kain won’t say Cecil and Rosa’s names, so she lets it pass.   

There’s something more between the three old Baron friends than simple betrayal (mind control or not), and it's thick enough to cut with a blade.  Meither Cecil nor Rosa have ever offered the entire story, and Rydia cares for her friends too much to ask.

Instead she asks, “And what exactly do you do by yourself alone on a mountain?”

Kain’s lips curve towards something like a smile.  “I could ask the same of the woman who lives underground with monsters.”

“I asked first.”  The words sound petulant, like the child Rydia used to be, but she’s exhausted to care.

“I’m training,” Kain replies simply.  It's a truth, but Rydia knows it's only a half truth.

“And abandoned your duty as captain of the Dragoons.”  It’s a statement and not an accusation, but Rydia still feels the weight behind the words.

“The kingdom is at peace,” Kain says.  And that is that.

Taking care of the essentials stymies any other conversation for the time being.  The entrance to the tomb, mysterious as it appeared, seems to be holding steady.  The undead can still be heard outside.  Neither Rydia nor Kain have any inclination to see what happens when they try to open the door.  The simple fact that they’re still alive points to that it’s secure.

Rydia offers Kain a drink from her canteen and smoked meat.  Kain escaped into the tomb with nothing more than his spear and the clothes on his back.  Rydia thankfully was carrying her pack, and there’s enough to last her for several days.  But Rydia wasn’t counting on two people having to share her supplies for an indefinite amount of time.  She does some mental calculations.  They’re not pretty.  

Finally, there’s nothing to do but wait.

 

* * *

 

Kain doesn’t know how much time is passing.  They’re inside the tomb, and it’s not like he can even see the light changing.  It must be morning by now.  You would think that daylight would help drive off the horde of undead, but he can still hear them screeching outside.  Kain has faced down countless horrors, but there’s something about men and women being used against their will after death that makes his blood run cold.

Rydia has fallen asleep on her cot.  Kain’s struck by how young she is, even if she has aged since their first meeting.  And in surface years, she can’t be much older than 10.  But for all that she’s a grown woman now, Kain will always remember her as he first saw her - a young, terrified child weeping over the death of her mother.  He supposes she and Cecil had time to work that part out.  For Kain, it’s yet another matter unspoken, another sin unredeemed.

And people wonder why he doesn’t leave the mountain more.

So _this_ is the place where Cecil faced his trial.  A suitably overdramatic setting for a man cast as the hero of his own tale.  (No, that’s not fair.  Cecil himself is always reasonable and down to earth.  Kain just wishes the universe would stop casting his friend as the romantic hero, with Kain forever the reluctant foil).

Kain won’t lie - when he first came to Mount Ordeals, he wanted this place for himself.  He wanted his own magical trial and redemption, and to step out a shining hero with his misdeeds wiped away.

And now he’s finally here, and...nothing.  He knows he should be thankful to whatever power let them into this place and to safety, but all Kain feels is bitterness.  Whatever redemption there is to be found here, it will never be his.

It wasn’t you who did those things, Rosa had told him.  It was ridiculous, they had just escaped the Tower of Zot, and Rosa barely with her life.  There is nothing for you to apologize for, she had insisted.

Maybe Kain wasn’t in control of himself when he mindlessly followed Golbez’s commands.  But he was when he nurtured the darkness that allowed Golbez and Zeromus to take control.

Now that Kain’s finally entered this place where Cecil found redemption, all he wants to do is leave.  Of course the ever-growing sounds of the undead outside means they can’t.  The irony kills him.

Kain doesn’t know how much time passes before sleep finally claims him.

 

* * *

 

 Rydia is awakened by the sound of someone in pain.  She sits upright.  Kain is maybe eight feet away from her in his cot, _whimpering_ .  For a moment, Rydia is dumbfounded.  She’s certain she’s never seen Kain so much as acknowledge he’s in pain when he’s bleeding, and the sounds coming from him now feel foreign.  His fingers are clenched in distressed.  Rydia can make out a single word, laced and heavy with pain.  “Don’t, _please_ .” And then, “You can’t, I _won’t-_ ”  

She hastens over and puts a hand on his shoulder.  Kain jerks away at the touch and a hand closes around her neck before his eyes even open.  Kain is strong, and the grip is tight - Rydia can’t get out air to scream.  She’s about to summon her magic to do something, anything, when Kain’s eyes open.  A second more passes before he really sees her, and he drops his hand in horror before backing away from her like an open flame.

For the second time that day, Rydia is gasping for breath.

“What the hell?” Kain hisses out in anger.  Whatever darkness and pain consumed him in sleep is now turned on her.  

“You were-”

His eyes flash in rage.  “I was nothing.”  There’s nowhere to go in the small chamber, but Kain nevertheless finds the opposite end of the room and kicks the mirrored walls several times in anger.  To Rydia’s surprise and Kain’s exacerbation, the walls hold steady.

Whatever untold pain Rydia has interrupted, she at least owes Kain his privacy.  So she rolls over on her side, and tries her best to ignore her companion’s attempts to put himself back together.

 

* * *

 

When Rydia awakes, it’s to a creak in her neck and exhaustion still deep in her bones.  The chamber’s floor is smoother and more comfortable than many of the places she’s camped, but she slept poorly all the same.

Kain seems to have collected himself while she slept and is turned away from her, eyes closed and palms up in a meditation.  Rydia’s never seen him do that in the time they spent fighting against Zeromus’s forces.  Good for him, maybe it’s helping him conquer whatever demons sleep (not so quietly) inside of him.  And after all, there’s likely not much else to do while training alone on a mountain.

Rydia won’t risk a fullblown campfire in a closed space, not when the smoke could kill them long before the undead.  But she’s confident enough in her magic to conjure a small flame beneath her hands, so the dried meat in her pack is at least warmed.  Yesterday’s activities must have worn her out more than she thought, because even the effort of her small effort creates sunbursts behind her eyes.

The smell of warm food eventually brings Kain out of his meditations.  He looks at the warming meat, and then her.  She swears she can see pride and hunger war inside of him.  Rydia instead smirks and offers him several strips of dried meat.

“Thanks,” is all Kain says, but it’s genuine and breaks the silence and the tension.

Rydia counts out the strips again, and scrutinizes the water lever in her canteen.  “It must be day by now, the undead’s power should be weakened.  You think we can get out of here?”

 

* * *

 

Any hopes Kain had of returning to his solitary, normal routines are quickly dashed the moment he and Rydia step outside the tomb.  There must have been several dozen undead that chased them over the mountain bridge and into the tomb.  Now there are hundreds, and they’re only growing in number and strength.

The undead are on them in seconds.  Thankfully Kain’s reflexes are quick, and his spear sharp.  But the support he expects from his companion doesn’t come.  In the midst of all the movement, Rydia looks uncertain.  She opens her mouth and starts forming the strange sounds of her magic.  No words come out.  

Through the clink of his spear against rotting flesh, Kain sees Rydia try again.  Her eyes go black, and she stumbles.

“Are you-”

“No,” Rydia manages to choke out.

Rotting hands grab for them as once again the tomb door opens and shuts.  Kain may hate the tomb, but it welcomes them back all the same into bright silence.

“Are you okay?  What happened back there?”

“I think-”

Kain barely manages to catch Rydia before she passes out.  

 

* * *

 

 When Rydia wakes, it’s to the feel of a cool strip of cloth against her head and Kain Highwind’s unmasked face.  He lets out a small sound of relief.  “Are you okay?”

Rydia slowly nods, the events of the last hours and the last day before that trickling back to her.  They went outside the tomb, but the undead were there, and then-

Panic seizes her.  She reaches again with her power for the Eidolons, for her friends who have been with her always.  Who are a part of her.

Nothing.  

 

* * *

 

Rydia’s coming back awake, but Kain knows something is very wrong.  “Are you-”

Rydia is breathing heavily, a look of terror in her eyes.  “I can’t feel them,” she whispers, despair dawning on her as she realizes the truth of her words.  Her chest heaves and her eyes fix on an unseen point in the distance.

Kain’s seen this expression before, on villagers who have just watched their homes torn apart by fiends.  They’re safe for now, but they don’t have the luxury of panic.

“Listen to me, we don’t have time for this.”  Rydia still doesn’t see him.  Okay, so tough love isn’t going to work here.  Kain tries to imagine what Cecil would do, what Cecil would say.  “I need you to breathe, Rydia.  We’re not going to get out of this if you’re just-”  The look on Rydia’s face reminds her of the first time they met, when she was seven years old and terrified.  His forces his voice gentler, and puts a cautious hand on her shoulder.  “Just breathe.  That’s the first step.  Can you do that?”

He feels like a demented parody of Cecil, but whatever he’s doing is working . Slowly, awareness returns to Rydia’s face.  Her breathing slows.  Kain continues in the voice he’s heard Rosa use with wounded soldiers.  “Can you tell me what happened?”

Rydia inhales deeply.  “I um...my connection with my friends - the Eidolons, it’s been strange ever since I came to the surface.  Like there was something between us, which doesn’t make sense since it was just as strong on the Moon so it couldn’t be distance.  And now they’re just not...there.”  She shakes her head.  “There’s never been a time when I couldn’t feel them.”

Kain nods.  “But you’re not dead.”

Rydia has apparently come back to herself enough to fix him with a look.  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He’s not proud of knowing the reason for this connection, but maybe it’s some small redemption if it can bring her some comfort.  “Your mother...passed when her dragon was destroyed, yes?”

Rydia is kind enough not to call him on the inadequacy of “passed”, when “murdered” would be so much more appropriate.  

“The Eidolons must be okay, and you ultimately must be connected.  Or you would…”

Rydia shakes her head ruefully.  “You’re pretty bad at this, you know that?”  But her words are an olive branch.  

Kain takes it.

 

* * *

 

They come up with a working theory that the undead are being powered by the current phase of the moon, and that it must also be what is interfering with Rydia’s connection to the Eidolons. Given enough time, it should pass.  

Rydia’s rations aren’t much, but they’re enough to keep two adults alive, if not fully satisfied.

There’s nothing to do but wait it out for several days.

Kain, thankfully, is used to long, quiet days, even if the lack of visual cues to indicate the passage of time is uncanny.  Meditating...well, he supposes it passes the time, as does practicing his Dragoon stances.  

Poor Rydia is obviously not as used to having nothing to occupy her time.  And while she hasn’t descended into full blown panic again, it’s obviously that she is pained by her severed connection to the Eidolons, no matter how temporary.

Kain knows the wrongs he did against Rydia and her village can never be righted, and yet she still fought at his side.  The least he can do now is distract her.  “I’m surprised you haven’t reappeared on the surface as an old woman - I thought time moved faster in your realm.”

“In...a sense,” Rydia offers hesitantly.  “Time moves the way it wants to, ultimately.  Sometimes faster than the mortal world, sometimes slower.”  Kain quirks an eyebrow - he’s seen a lot, but maybe not as much as he thinks, because he’s used to time at least moving at a steady clip, even if it’s supernaturally slowed or sped up.  Rydia’s cheeks redden slightly.  “It’s hard to explain in human terms.”

“Aren’t you human?” Kain asks.

“No,” Rydia says defiantly.  Kain meets her gaze.  She sighs.  “Yes.  I mean, in the literal sense.  But I’ve spent more time in the Feymarch than in the human world.  When I die, I’d like to think I’ll become like your departed king and my spirit will be remade like Odin.”  From the look on her face, Rydia realizes her slip as soon as the words leave her mouth.  

“You can talk about the dead, you know,” Kain scoffs.  I wish everyone would more, he silently adds.

The old king - Kain misses him.  Not out of any sense of bitterness towards Cecil, but he misses the time when things were slower and safer.  Not that it felt like it, of course.  When he thinks back on that time, he remembers strongly the strength of his feelings then, both the excitement he and Cecil shared in coming into their own, and the fierce rivalry.  It all felt so unbearable then.  How he misses it now.

“You don’t talk about yours,” is Rydia’s only response.

“My father?” Kain asks, surprised.

Rydia rolls her eyes.  “Maybe not your dead.  But you treat your best friends as if they’ve departed the world.  Cecil missed you at the wedding.  Rosa too.  Do you really hate them that much?”

Kain visibly recoils.  “You know that isn’t true.”

“Then you resent them that much for choosing each other and not you?”

“No,” Kain denies.  He sighs.  “Maybe, but that’s not why I didn’t attend.”

“Then…?”

“I didn’t deserve it.”  He looks at his reflection in the mirror, unchanging.  “I still don’t.”

Rydia shakes her head.  “You’re not undeserving, Kain Highwind.  You’re a coward.”

 

* * *

 

Kain deflects the blow.  “You’re not one to talk of running away from your fears, Rydia.  For all that you seem as enamored with Edge Geraldine as he is with you, you’ve been hiding under a literal rock.”

Rydia feels the blush spreading across her cheeks.  “The Feymarch is my home.  And who is to say I’m enamored with him?”

Kain shrugs.  “It’s not really my business.  But I’ve seen the way you look at each other.” He smiles ruefully.  “And don’t think no one noticed that you were always taking the watch together.”

Rydia is not sure if she’s more annoyed that Kain noticed, or that Rosa and Cecil likely also noticed and never said anything.  That would be like them.  How many times

“It’s not that I don’t care for Edge, but I can’t be on the surface.” She looks around.  “I mean, I can’t stay there.  And for all that his people live in caves, he can’t live underground.  And given how time in the Feymarch moves at its own whim, it’s not as if we can have a long distance relationship.”

“And you call me a coward,” Kain muses.  “I don’t think we’re so different, in the end.”

“You could come back to Baron, but you choose not to.”

“And you could be with the man you care for, but you choose not to.”

The digits of Rydia’s fingers dig into her palms.  “It’s different.”

“How?”

“I don’t belong here!” Rydia is surprised to realize she’s shouting.  She puts her right hand over her left arm to calm herself.  

Kain smiles sympathetically.  “Then maybe we’re not so different after all.”

 

* * *

 

 Both Rydia and Kain are sleeping when the barrier to the tomb loses its power.  Thankfully, they’re given maybe ten seconds of warning before the undead start to stream into the tomb.

Thankfully both Kain and Rydia are warriors in the end, meant to fight on a moment’s notice.

It must be taking Rydia more effort than usual to even access her black magic, because she doesn’t look so good.  They don’t have a choice.  They stand back to back, movements parallel to each other.

Kain’s spear is knocked from his hands, forcing him to fight with only the small knife he keeps tucked against his side.  But there are so many undead, that no matter how skilled they both are, they can’t keep this up forever.  Not when they are so outnumbered.

Kain is furious that after everything he’s faced, _this_ is how he’s going to go down.  Against something weak and vast, rather than against a foe truly worthy of them.  But if he has to meet such a ridiculous end, at least he’s not alone.

And then...

“My children,” speaks an unknown voice.  The tomb floods with light.

 

* * *

 

Rydia blinks her eyes.  There’s nothing left of the horde of undead that seconds ago threatened to overwhelm them.  “That’s...it?”

Back still against hers, Kain is out of breath.  “You know...I was pretty ticked off at whatever thing lives inside here.  But I think I’m ready to call it a day.  Even if its timing could be improved.”

Rita nods.  Reaches out with her mind, and feels her friends around her.  Tears threaten to spill from her eyes.

Kain smiles.  “I take it you can feel your Eidolons again?”

  
“Yes,” Rydia chokes out.  But she’s grinning ear to ear.  “Thank you.”

“For what?” Kain looks genuinely confused.

Rydia just laughs.  “You’re really bad at this, you know?”

Kain’s returning grin is genuine.  “Sounds like someone I know.”

 

* * *

 

Thankfully Kain's campsite is still largely intact, even if most of the supplies have been stepped on.  Kain wants to tease Rydia for immediately setting up his store of dried fruit, but the truth is he's eaten just a much.  He declares a truce and splits the final piece with her.  "I take it you'll be returning to the Feymarch, then?"

Rydia nods.  "It is my home."  Above all else, remains unspoken.  "Whatever just happened here, I need to tell my King and Queen."

"Oh, just send a chocobo and tell them that Cecil's dad is overly dramatic as his son."  Kain looks down at the ground beneath them.  "If you ever need a place to retreat to, you're welcome to-" 

Kain would be mortified at the blush descendingover Rydia's face if he wasn't so damn funny.  She stammers, "If you think I-"

Kain lets out a guffaw.  The sound startles him, but in a good way.  He'd forgotten what that felt like.  "Not like that, young Summoner.  People like us don't really belong anywhere.  I'm just saying you're welcome here if you need refuge from the world.  That's all.  Apologies if I startled you just now."

Rydia's smile is small but strong.  "But I do have a place that I belong."  She looks up at him.  "Thank you, though, truly.  You're nearly as bad of a man as you think, Kain Highwind."

Kain shakes his head.  "You may be a woman now, Rydia, but you are just as naive as when we met."  His tone is laced with brotherly affection.

Rydia tosses the nearest object at him., which just so happens to be her water canteen  "And you're just as much of an ass.  I mean it.  I don't think any force on the Earth or Moon could force you back to Baron, but you're not going to learn anything here."

"Where are you saying I go, then?"

"Somewhere.  Anywhere."

Kain wonders what it would be like - to be free of the chains that forever weigh him down.  He'd seen stranger things in the world, perhaps it was time for one to happen to him.  "Huh."

 


End file.
